Tuesday, August 28, 2012

I am deep into work on my next (and final) novel in The Black Douglas Trilogy. It isn't coming easy. I hadn't researched the years after the Battle of Bannockburn as deeply as I had the years before and I needed some additional books. I am still waiting for the part of Bower's Scotichronicon that covers from 1320 to 1360 and the cost made me cry. But I have most of what I need and am just looking for bits and pieces I may have missed. Of course, much of it is open to question and a lot of details are lost in the shroud of history. All the more fun for me.

I am still wrestling with a big question. Who WAS the mother of James Douglas's bastard son, later known as Archibald the Grim or Black Archibald? Admittedly it could have been anyone, including the local milkmaid, but the fact that Archibald grew up in the King's household is rather mysterious. Even King Robert's illegitimate children were not normally a part of the royal household. And Archibald eventually became the 3rd Earl of Douglas. A bastard becoming powerful and inheriting was not unknown in 14th century Scotland, but was a long way from the norm. This leads me to speculate that the mother had some power in addition to his being Douglas's son. But who would she have been?

Another big question is the title. I am wavering on choosing "The Hammer of England" in spite of some people saying that it sounds as though he was English. TheOldNat suggested Mell of England since I've been known to sneak in a word or two of Scots. Of course, hardly anyone would know what the title meant (it means a wooden mallet in Scots) but that might not be a big issue. Or it might be.

I'm open to suggestion on both questions.

Anyway, I am researching and writing away at it. The artist is working on art for the cover and I have a cover designer ready to design the cover. My editor is ready. Unless something really unexpected happens the final book in The Black Douglas Trilogy will be out early next year.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

I'm proud to announce that A Kingdom's Cost won for Best Historical Novel at the eFestival of Words. To be exact, it tied with Vestal Virgin by Suzanne Tyrpak. For those not acquainted with this award, the staff of the festival solicited peer-nominations
from authors, editors, book reviewers, and publishers. Authors were not
allowed to nominate their own books. Everyone was nominated by their peers in the industry. The voting was opened to the attendees of the eFestival of Words.

Monday, August 13, 2012

I support this effort and have already made a small contribution. Like many authors, I'm not rich but every little bit will add up.

What's more I am ashamed of the indie author community and what has been done to the LendInk owner, Dale Porter. There is no excuse for it and an "I'm sorry" from the people -- mainly indie authors -- who did the damage is not enough. This gives all of us a chance to make things right.

No, I did not take part in the attacks; in fact, on several forums I said that the site was NOT pirating. But I also feel that I didn't speak out strongly enough. Largely because I wasn't paying attention, I stood by silent while much of this happened.

Here is Dale Porter's message discussing his plans for the site and what he needs to restore it:

Lendink.com is an online community created to help readers discovery new
authors and books by way of facilitating the legal lending of eBooks
via the Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble lending programs. The site was
recently shutdown by a group of angry authors who thought Lendink was
pirating their books. This was the result of misinformation being spread
via numerous online portals and by the time word got out that Lendink
was a legit service, the damages had been done and the site taken down
due to threats to Lendink and their web hosting company.

We have had hundreds of people write us and offer their support to bring
Lendink.com back but in order to do this, we must transfer to a web
host capable of handling the increase demands the recent exposure has
brought. We also want to have the site worked on in order to better
explain the book lending process and ensure that authors and readers
alike understand how the site works.

We would also like to have some additional features built into the site such as "Meet the Author" and "Book of the Week".

Unfortunately, we also anticipate further issues from some of the
misguided authors that still do not fully understand how the site
operates. To this end, we also need to setup a legal fund to hire legal
representation.

The success of Lendink is dependent on your donations. If you like
Lendink and would like to see the site back online, please consider
helping us.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

I've been trying to blog about this for several days. It is one of the few times I've been truly ashamed to be an author. I do feel like someone on the day after a lynching, wondering how something quite innocent could have gone so terribly wrong and who was to blame.

It started last week when someone (and it's hard to pin down the first post or tweet) started sending out messages and posting on forums and tweeting that LendInk was a "pirate" site with pirated novels on it. I took a brief look, saw that this was incorrect and didn't pay much attention to it at first.

So what WAS LendInk doing and why wasn't it piracy?

Well, when you buy an eBook from Amazon or Barnes & Noble, you are allowed to loan it one time for up to two weeks. While it is on loan it is not available on your Kindle or Nook. So a number of sites out there put together someone who has an eBook they are willing to lend with someone who would like to borrow it. The sites do not have the files; they act as, in effect, matchmakers. There is nothing either illegal or immoral about this. Hell, it's not even fattening!

On several of the popular writers forums, some of us such as Amanda Brice, Victorine Leiske and I amongst several others, were trying to explain this to fellow writers--and our explanations were falling on deaf ears. In the meantime, on Twitter the accusations went viral. Without bothering to check, author after author tweeted accusations that the site was pirating. It turned into a virtual mob (no pun) going after this business man. (I'm not naming names but it doesn't take much research to know the biggest offenders.) According to the LendInk owner, things even went so far as having threats of violence made against him and his family.

Then to make things even "better" as a response to the heavy influx of angry traffic and DMCA notices, the service providers took down the site. The fact that there was no truth to the accusations and no copyright violation anywhere on the site didn't matter. Not only were they NOT pirating, the site had links to Amazon and B&N where the novels could be purchased if they weren't available for a borrow.

In fact, having your book listed there was a GOOD thing, just as it is a good thing to have neighbors lending your book because they enjoyed it or people checking it out of the library. First: It was perfectly legal. Second: It is how people find new authors.

But what upsets me... What has me really angry is that there are still authors out there defending what they did! They put the man who owned it out of business by what is basically a mob action and they have NO shame. The worst I saw was on Critique Circle forums where some of this mob action was formed and where I WAS a long time member.

Not any more. I do not want to be any part of the writers' community that behaves in this fashion.

Addendum: I read on the site owner's Facebook page that the site hosts have offered to restore LendInk. After the threats to himself and his family as well as the stress of the last week, he apparently has decided not to restore it. I can hardly blame him.